I wish I had felt as if some very real solution died right along with Richard...that his death meant that whatever they needed to do they can now no longer do...that Richard's extremely unique experience and role with Jacob was providing the survivors--and the show--with some MUCH needed knowledge as to how to stop MiB. At least that way his death would not only be sudden, but would make me feel as if the Losties are in even deeper sh!t than they were before. But I felt none of that. Richard's death didn't really effect anything.

I see what you mean. The best stories are always the ones where the writer get his characters into the worst possible situation, and then gets them out of it. What you are talking about is similar to what I loved about the old A-Team. (I mean that in a good way) Basically in each A-Team, they would form a plan, then something would mess up the plan and there would be that "oh sh!t" moment. Then they would improvise some solution and win the day.

However, it's a little different in Lost here, and for me it's working. If Richard had a plan, then we the audience would know that there is a way to beat MIB and this is how, yada yada. However, even going into the finale, we have no idea how to beat this guy, only that our Losties need to figure out a way to do it.

I think they still could have had that, though, even with Richard coming up with a much better plan than "We gotta blow up the plane". Lost could have treated it like it treats everything else, and only give vague clues to what Richard's plan consists of...

Richard: "We'll need a rope, some C4 explosives, some duct tape and a CD player. That's the only way to stop MiB from leaving the island."

Hurley: "Dude...why?"

Richard: "You wouldn't understand it even if I tried to explain it to you..."

Hurley: "Dude."

Then, later, Richard gets killed right as they're getting the CD player that Hurley brought with him and was always listening to during Season 1. The Losties--and the audience--still don't know what Richard's plan was, but both the characters and us the viewers spend countless hours and create dozens of threads trying to determine what those 4 items have to do with conquering the evil that is Smokie.

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That creates a hell of alot of tension. At some point in this episode, likely when it looks like all hope is lost, somebody is going to say something to the effect of "I have an idea" and we won't know what it is, but that moment, when/if it happens, will be supercool, because we will finally see somebody with a real plan of killing MIB and winning the day.

My fear is that the "plan" someone comes up with is going to be incredibly basic--like Kate throwing dynamite down the hole when Smokie was dragging Locke down into it--and I'll find myself thinking "Wait...so all it took to defeat Smokie was THAT?" lol.

I think you've been watching too much MacGruber lately. lol

My main point really was if anybody knew how to defeat MIB, it would take the suspense we feel right now down a notch. The fact that not even Jacob knew puts MIB in that "invincible villian" catagory, and I've always said the key to every good movie is a good villian and good music. When it comes time to actually take him out...I'll be on the edge of my seat.

Review: We spent one of the last hours of Lost on Richard's backstory - establishing his importance, his immortality, his relationship to Jacob and MiB and the Island.

And then they summarily kill him off before he can play out his part in the story? Yes, he was part of the blow up gang and said he didn't know about the Island's mysteries, but I have to believe that the Island isn't done with him.

Not quite, Illana and Sayid exploded and Richard was pushed off screen. Tina Fey had her throat cut, Widmore was shot like 4 times. If it not shown on screen or there is no body, then there is no death.

Review: We spent one of the last hours of Lost on Richard's backstory - establishing his importance, his immortality, his relationship to Jacob and MiB and the Island.

And then they summarily kill him off before he can play out his part in the story? Yes, he was part of the blow up gang and said he didn't know about the Island's mysteries, but I have to believe that the Island isn't done with him.

I think we'll see him again in the finale.

I hope you are right, even if we just get him in ghost form.

And I kind of agree with what you said about all that we saw in Ab Aeterno, then all of a sudden woosh, he's gone. However, I think it's impotant to note that maybe part of the reason he died was because he split away from Hurley, Jack, etc. If Richard had more "faith" in Hurley's gut feeling, maybe he'd still be alive, maybe not.